August 31, 2022
August 31, 2022
Photo by Eric Prouzet on Unsplash
There were 11.2 million open jobs at the end of July compared to 11 million at the end of June, according to the Labor Department's job openings and labor turnover report released on Tuesday.
Job openings climbed the most in transportation, warehousing and utilities (up 81,000), followed by recreation, government and education, where openings climbed by 53,000, 47,000 and 42,000, respectively.
In emailed comments after the report, analyst Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge Media said the big number, which exceeded expectations of 10.3 million, "isn't going to make" Federal Reserve officials happy after they warned last week that the job market is still running too hot to justify easing up on interest rate hikes that curtail economic growth.
Meanwhile, hires and total separations, which include quits and layoffs, were also little changed month to month at about 6.4 million and 5.9 million—yet another sign of labor market resilience.
"Normally, seeing companies wanting to hire more workers is a good thing," says Bryce Doty, a portfolio manager at Sit Fixed Income Advisors; however, "more jobs is more reason" for the Fed to raise rates "and inflict more economic harm" in order to cool down stubbornly high inflation, he explains.
Stocks fell immediately after the report, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average down about 250 points, or 0.8% by 11 a.m. ET.
Read the full report here